Aussie cruise visitors to New Zealand plummet 41 per cent in just two years – luring them back won’t be easy 

• Australian visitors to New Zealand have dropped a massive 41 per cent in just two years.
• At the same time, New Zealand visitors to Australia have dropped by 50 per cent.
• Despite some recent smart moves, the road ahead is looking difficult for New Zealand cruise.

In 2023, about 133,000 Aussies decided on New Zealand as their cruise destination of choice. Just two years later, that number has dropped drastically, with only 78,000 Australians in 2025 cruising across the Tasman, a staggering 41 per cent.

This seismic shift away from the Shakey Isles didn’t come out of nowhere. The New Zealand Cruise Association (NZCA) flagged this problem itself, noting last year that a massive drop in cruise numbers to New Zealand was on the way. However, the magnitude of the drop from Aussie visitors alone is remarkable. 

The feeling among cruisers seems to be mutual, with the number of Kiwis coming to Australian shores also dropping. In 2023, 66,000 New Zealanders came to Australia to cruise. By 2025 that number has halved, with only 33,000 New Zealanders cruising in Australia. 

This coincides with the massive drop in the number of cruises offered between Australia and New Zealand in the last two years, with Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess, the three largest cruise lines in Australia, being the main culprits.

New Zealand is now becoming a more premium itinerary, particularly with lines like Royal Caribbean and Princess who now price their New Zealand sailings well above other itineraries due to only having a couple available each season. 

This means less passengers from Australia and New Zealand are sailing across the Tasman. While the Australian cruise industry can redirect the cruise traffic to other parts of Australia and the South Pacific, the New Zealand industry, largely relies on Australian cruisers.

In 2025, only a total of 33,300 New Zealanders cruise locally in Australia, New Zealand or the South Pacific, meaning that losing almost 60,000 Aussie visitors in just two years is obviously a significant blow. Furthermore, a higher percentage of Kiwis are looking to cruise long haul and get out of the region entirely, with 46.3 per cent of all New Zealand cruisers heading to long haul destinations, up from 34.5 per cent in 2024. 

Unfortunately, in a post-pandemic period where cruise lines became increasingly focused on profitability, New Zealand became a very difficult place to cruise, turning away ships due to new environmental protection laws and adding new customs and regulatory fees for cruise ships. This, already on top of an expensive regulatory environment and the long distances from Australia incurring high fuelling costs, was more than enough to make cruise lines slash their New Zealand itineraries. 

While it’s certainly not new news that New Zealand has a cruise crisis, the latest numbers from CLIA demonstrate the extent of these losses, and they are surely likely to be further reflected in upcoming economic impact reports. 

New Zealand fights back – but it’s a long road ahead

In saying all of this, New Zealand saw this crisis coming and has been taking decisive action over recent months. Since the government joined forces with the cruise industry to create a collaborative strategic action for the cruise industry, things have been moving fast.

We’ve seen plans put into place for a brand new international cruise terminal in Auckland, a definitive end to a possible ban of cruising in Milford Sound, a plan to install hull cleaning facilities at the port in Auckland and even a series of Carnival cruises rerouted to New Zealand to homeport out of Auckland instead. 

The goal will be to attempt to tempt cruise lines that operate in Australia to start offering more New Zealand itineraries again. However, the path back won’t be easy. 

Royal Caribbean, who has already cut back New Zealand sailings up to 70 per cent over recent years, will be focusing the majority of new itineraries around Lelepa, its private destination in the Pacific. Furthermore, Carnival, who only offers New Zealand sailings from Sydney, is cutting back one of its year-round Sydney ships, moving Carnival Adventure to the USA for half the year from 2028. 

Princess Cruises now only sails two ships out of Australia, and while it will be adding a third for the 2027/28 season, this ship will operate mostly out of Western Australia, far away from New Zealand. 

Furthermore, Disney Cruises, one of the few lines who would homeport some cruises out of Auckland, is leaving the region entirely. 

Therefore, in reality, recovering New Zealand’s cruise losses will take more than strategic local decisions.

It will take pushing Australia towards creating its own strategic cruise plan that results in more ships sailing locally, and more incentives for trans-Tasman travel, to stop cruise lines opting for cheaper local and South Pacific itineraries instead.